Friday, November 14, 2014

...What a moving story and also very relevant as when compared to the current social and political dynamics in the 50 years old Tanzania of today....

....what are the lessons to extract from what has been described as 'An astonishing story of grassroots power and creativity told by a man who lived it......

.....Who and where are our Ntimbanjayos of modern state Tanzania of 21st century.....

.....This is one toolkit to be added to your collective understanding of the evolving story of Tanzania as the nation population strives to fight and eradicate poverty, diseases, ignorance and above all, the cancer of grand corruption within our society and creating and building lasting useful wealth for current and future generation.....

Ralph, a demonstrably and vividly selfless person, a highly principled man, whom I respect and have a rare privilege to call a friend, now lives in Scotland and had spent a good part of his life in rural post Independent Tanzania; he has shared a story that I believe is close to his heart and by doing so, helps passing the torch to the next generation. Salute!

Get yourself a copy or in case of any further questions you can get in touch with Louise Johnstone - rudatanzania@hotmail.co.uk . Please also share with your possibly interested friends, colleagues and family.

[Few papers have been written by some scholars but this I believe is an authoritative narration by the man who lived it, from its genesis and painfully and sadly saw the unfortunate efforts by some senior officials to get RDA efforts completely derailed anf frustrated....

A true account that will leave a reader with few avenues for possible "what ifs"....what if the grassroot movement was embraced wholeheartedly by the state machinery....would the villages grow into vibrant self reliant towns?....propagate across the south or entire nation?....

One is better to get ones own copy and extract some useful lessons for our today's challenges.

Ujamaa is not such a bad word afterall, with hindsight I dare say!]

Regards

Apollo Temu

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"To our many sponsors and supporters who would like to know more about the original RDA and the background to our ongoing committment to the Ruvuma region of Tanzania, RUDA's founder Ralph Ibbot's book "Ujamaa: the hidden story of Tanzania's socialist villages" is now published, and is available from Crossroads Books at a pre-publication price of £14.99. See www.crossroadsbooksonline.net . It is described as 'An astonishing story of grassroots power and creativity told by a man who lived it.' All royalties from the book will be used to help build a library/research centre at our school, so by buying a copy you will be helping us to further develop the Ntimbanjayo Memorial School..." - Louise Johnstone

Karibu kwenye ulingo wa kutafakari kuhusu tunapotoka,tulipo,tuendako na namna ambavyo tutafika huko tuendako/Welcome to a platform for reflecting on where we are coming from, where we are, where we are going and how we will get there